This invention relates to an eyeglass frame. More particularly, this invention relates to a nose piece assembly for an eyeglass frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,215 describes eyeglasses which are constructed to permit vision impaired persons to apply cosmetics to the eye region of the wearer""s face while simultaneously enhancing vision. The present invention is directed to improvements of such eyeglass constructions in order to facilitate the use of the eyeglasses.
Briefly, the invention is directed to an eyeglass frame having a pair of lens receiving sections in which a bracket is secured between the lens receiving sections and a nose piece assembly is slidably mounted on the bracket for movement longitudinally thereof, for example up and down, to adjust to the shape and size of a wearer""s nose and face.
The bracket is formed with a vertically disposed recess while the nose piece assembly includes a slide which is slidably mounted in the recess. In addition, a spring is disposed between the slide and the bracket within the recess for slidably engaging the slide and abutting the bracket in order to hold the slide in the recess of the bracket.
The nose piece assembly also includes a bridge at one end for disposition on a nose of a user and means connected to and between the slide and the bridge for adjusting the bridge relative to the slide and bracket. In one embodiment, the means is pivotally connected to the slide to pivot the bridge vertically of the bracket. In addition, this means is pivotally connected to the bridge to allow for adjustments thereat.
Alternatively, in another embodiment, the means for adjusting the bridge relative to the slide may be longitudinally adjustable to lengthen or shorten the nose piece assembly to adjust to the size of the wearer""s nose and face.
In addition, the eyeglass frame has a pair of temples, each of which is pivotally mounted on a respective lens receiving section. In order to facilitate folding of the temples over each other onto the lens receiving sections, each lens receiving section is provided with a pair of outstanding ears and a pivot is fixedly secured to each temple for disposition between the ears. Any suitable means, such as a screw, pin, rivet or the like, is used to hingedly secure the pivot to the ears so that the temples may be folded flat against the lens receiving sections, for purposes of storage or ease of transportation.
The nose piece assembly is constructed as a self-contained unit composed of the slide, bridge and means connected to and between the slide and bridge for adjusting the bridge and slide relative to each other. For example, should an eyeglass frame require a different nose piece assembly, the existing nose piece assembly may be readily removed from the bracket between the two lens receiving sections and replaced by a new nose piece assembly.